Considering the value of human life
Maybe it’s time to get really mad
Cindy Stephen
Alberta Correspondent
alberta@christianweek.org
It was a tragic and gruesome story.
Just after Thanksgiving in the small town of Didsbury 45 minutes north of Calgary, a dog was found lying in the road in a pool of blood. Its legs and muzzle were bound with tape. It had been beaten and dragged down the road, tied to a car. A local woman found it at midnight, the rope still around its neck. Although left for dead, the Lab/Border Collie cross was still breathing.
The town vet was roused from his sleep to come euthanize the poor creature on the road where it lay. Just about every bone in its body was broken. A trail of blood led to a nearby home, and two teenage males were taken into custody.
RCMP say they’ve never seen such a sickening case of animal abuse. The outrage spread across southern Alberta as radio, television and newspapers covered the story. The people of Didsbury demanded the alleged culprits leave their town. A local man, over the top with anger over the incident, was arrested after uttering death threats on the answering machine at the home where the youths lived.
The penalty for animal abuse is six months in jail and or a $2,000 fine. “They should be dragged through the streets themselves!” everyone cried.
A similar incident?
The very same week, the body of a homeless man was found in a park in Calgary, partially covered by a tarp just metres away from the Bow River.
He was a drifter, in his late 40s, known to panhandle in the Bowness area of northwest Calgary. Police say he died as the result of a violent attack and was likely dead for two days before anyone found him.
The victim’s family said he left his Ontario home as a young man to see the country. They hadn’t seen him in more than a dozen years. His mother said her son Brad often called to talk. “He has been gone from home since he was 21,” she said from her Welland, Ontario home. “I’ve been expecting this phone call for years.”
No particular outrage over this one. A guy lives on the street, he associates with unsavoury characters—stuff happens.
No cry for homeless
It’s interesting the value society places on people. No big hue and cry from the general public when it’s a homeless person. How sad, because we’re all God’s creatures; we’re all the same in his eyes. We should be as angry about the murder of this man lying dead in a field as we are about the murder of a dog lying in the road.
Didsbury residents are passing a petition around, asking that the dog-draggers be punished to the max. There’s no petition circulating for Brad, the homeless guy.
I guess we’re just not mad enough.
